Man paraded for phone theft in UP, father-son duo arrested after video goes viral

The police are looking for the third accused, who shaved Sonu’s head.

“Of the two mobile phones reported missing from Raju and Raj’s house, one was recovered, while the other is yet to be traced,” said Pradeep Kumar Singh, the Station House Officer of Asivan police station, adding that Sonu has two criminal cases registered against him.

According to police, after the video surfaced on social media, they started to verify the location of the incident and those seen in the video. “During verification, we identified the victim as Sonu, a resident of Pathakapur village. A preliminary inquiry found that the alleged disappearance of two mobile phones from the house of Raju on July 30 led to the incident. The family suspected Sonu, as he had visited their house shortly before the phones went missing. Raju’s family said Sonu was a habitual drinker,” said a police officer involved in the probe.

“Raju and his son Raj began searching for Sonu. During their search, a villager allegedly told them that Sonu was seen entering a general store that had remained shut for several years. The father-son duo then went to the shop and claimed to have recovered one of the missing mobile phones. They traced Sonu to Lucknow and brought him back to the village on August 1. Instead of handing Sonu over to the police for alleged phone theft, they shaved his head before parading him around the village,” the officer said.

The father and son have been booked on charges of assault, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace, criminal intimidation, and kidnapping, the SHO added.